51–60 of 79 posts
This was a wonderful read. Could someone who's gone down this path provide a reading list for someone interested in learning more?
http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm
Many of the passages out of the Dao De Ching have a striking similarity to passages in Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting that nobody seems to have had anything particularly worth writing on the subject of stoicism for the past nearly-2000 years.
Stoicism is a secular buddhism for people that don't like the buddhist brand.
This was a wonderful read. Could someone who's gone down this path provide a reading list for someone interested in learning more?
- "Happy People: A Year in the Taiga " http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1683876/
- "Oh Boy" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954701/
- "American Beauty" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/
- "Amélie" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211915/
This was a wonderful read. Could someone who's gone down this path provide a reading list for someone interested in learning more?
The three best-known literary products of Stoic culture and philosophy are probably: - Marcus Aurelius' Meditations (make sure to get the Hays translation! By far the best). Aurelius was an emperor of Rome; Meditations are his musings to himself in later life. It's interesting to reading the internal grapplings of a man who was, to his countrymen, basically a walking god. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca's Letters from a Stoi…
Is stoicism having a cultural moment? I rather think that modern western culture is about as un-Stoic as it has been at any point since... sometime before Stoicism was invented, and that any explicit endorsement of Stoicism you may find among the remaining sane people is purely a reaction to that. Stoicism teaches that suffering and misfortune are part of life, and that wisdom comes from learning to deal with this fa…
Modern day "nerd" culture teaches us that we are special snowflakes who are the only rational ones in a land full of sheep, persecuted and looked down upon for our virtue. You are the thing you think you are criticizing.
Who is the group X that started the routine of saying "we are group X and we are special and isolated from the rest of human kind because of our unique suffering and/or significance"?
I'll give you a chance to answer.
Who started it? Who is the group X that started the routine of saying "we are group X and we are special and isolated from the rest of human kind because of our unique suffering and/or significance"? I'll give you a chance to answer.
For example, there's a segment of gender critical feminists that believe that transgender activists are uniformly assaulting them on all fronts when in reality transgender activists have been focused on issues of non-discrimination in law (public accommodation, employment, and healthcare as big issues where activists seek redress). Neither side assumes one is special or better/worse than the other but both attempt grand standing on who is more oppressed/harmed by society. And how unique their position is in terms of said oppression. I've rarely seen either side (being trans myself here) extend a hand in regards to trying to understand the other. It seems the most vocal members of this fracas are doomed to bury each other in terrible memes and virtual shouting matches. Some have gone further like Cathy Brennan who has doxxed a transgender teenager (who had no quarrel with her or other gender critical feminists) for the Pacific Justice Institute (a right wing think tank out of California). So, I hope you can see where I'm coming from here.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Modern day "nerd" culture teaches us that we are special snowflakes who are the only rational ones in a land full of sheep, persecuted and looked down upon for our virtue. You are the thing you think you are criticizing.
I have to agree. It's been my experience at least among certain circles of atheism (Graveyard of the Gods forums) and even social activism (Twitter has a bit of this nonsense going on) where X group is special and isolated from the rest of human kind terms of suffering and/or significance. Frankly, I think it's a lack of empathy that drives this sort of thinking. It's easy to symbolically scream and cluck your pearl…
Who started it? Who is the group X that started the routine of saying "we are group X and we are special and isolated from the rest of human kind because of our unique suffering and/or significance"? I'll give you a chance to answer.